Janice H2O Color

Plein Air at Overfelt Gardens

2012-02-04T16:57:00.000-08:00

On Thursday I went out to Overfelt Gardens is East San José with the SCVWS Plein Air group. Due to alarm clock issues, I was late and only had time to do a quick small painting of the pond. The ducks and Canada geese were busy and noisy, as always. This piece was done on a 6" x 12" Arches cold pressed block. As usual, my water doesn't look very wet, which is kind of ironic, as it took forever for ther paper to dry!

Red or Read Exhibit

2012-01-31T22:03:00.000-08:00

Queen of Hearts

10" x 14"

Several weeks ago I registered for the upcoming SCVWS show, "Red or Red." At the time I only had an idea for a painting in my head; its transition to paper was rocky, to say the least. I'm sorry to say that after working on it for 2 weeks, the patient could not be saved. It was a murky. overworked mess. Three days ago, I hurriedly scrambled to get this piece done. The cards were originally a rubber stamp I had carved; the practice prints turned out beautifully, but the money shot-the one on my painting- looked like a smear of tar on the paper. I had used acrylic paint for the stamp, so there was no way to eradicate the image. I went back in and tried to paint over it to "fix" it with mixed results. Framed, it looks better than I expected, luckily. Moral of the story: don't make up a name; that's what the word "Untitled" is for!

Be sure to go by the Los Altos Library during the month of February to see 38 other very nice paintings, in addition to mine.

Plein Air-Santa Cruz

2011-12-05T21:04:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday the SCVWS plein air painters braved record-breaking winds at the Mission and Holy Cross Church in Santa Cruz. My first painting of the mission will remain incommunicado, due to a perspective issue. After lunch I did this pen and ink drawing from the church grounds, looking back toward the plaza. I added washes later. It's on a 6" x 14" Arches cold-press block. I used a set of black Faber Castell Pitt pens with 4 different nib sizes. Love the way the redwood foliage turned out. It could use some shadows, though.
We had a good time-the docent let us go into the walled garden to have lunch, which was fortunate or all of the treats we brought to share would have been blown miles away.

Plein air at Guadalupe Oaks Park

2011-11-13T18:16:00.000-08:00

On Thursday the SCVWS Plein Air painters went to Guadalupe Oaks Park-a 63 acre park with lots of beautiful oak trees in the middle of a residential area. There are a couple of surprisingly high hills in the park, which give wonderful vistas of the valley. Mary Paquet even found a spot where she had a view of the downtown SJ skyline. There were 6 of us and we had a great time painting and helping Paint Site Leader Jenny Tero come up with ideas for the quilt she's making that illustrates Beatles songs! I did the first painting below of a cliff face in the old sandstone quarry in my Cachet spiral-bound book, 10" x 7". The cerulean sky granulated way too much, but there were plenty of streaky clouds. By the way, several of the buildings in San Jose's downtown were constructed using sandstone from the quarries in Almaden, including what is now the SJ Museum of Art (originally the post office.) Also, the charming Romanesque Revival Leticia Building on north First Street, which is now occupied by a law firm; the structure dates from 1890. A number of years ago, my dear friend, Eileen Connery, and I organized architectural walking tours of downtown and both of these buildings were on our tour!

The second is a different quarry view-I did this one on that odd little 4" x 10" Arches cold press block. A little more work would probably improve it-I began a bit of negative painting at the top of the cliff, which I like, but I don't want to overdo, so...maybe I should just leave it alone and get on with life!

Jan Hart Workshop

2011-10-26T15:45:00.000-07:00

Last week I participated in a watercolor workshop led by Jan Hart, as artist who lives in Costa Rica. She has an enormous amount of knowledge about pigments, which was very interesting. In the past, she worked very closely with the Daniel Smith company and she started us out with samples of a few of their paints. She had us use a very limited palette consisting of Ultramarine Turquoise, Quinacridone Sienna, Nickel Azo Yellow, Quinacridone Magenta, and Zoisite(one of Smith's proprietary PrimaTek pigments.) While this is a rather bizarre palette, she wanted us to understand the unique properties of the paints. Above you see my first painting from the workshop-it's from a reference photo I took of kohlrabi that I grew in my garden, laying on an old tarp. This may be my all-time favorite thing I've ever done! It isn't exactly what one might hang in the living room, but I just love the way the colors blended on the paper and the loose, casual look that I labored so hard to achieve!

My second piece was a vase of peonies that I have painted before (and posted a couple of months ago.) The soft cloth in the background gives it a surreal look. I used the same palette as above, plus Permanent Rose. I like the way the peonies turned out, but I'm back to my ususal controlled style. I still want to do these again. By the way, I used quarter sheets of Arches cold press for all of these.

All was not rosy in the workshop-I tackled a beautiful landscape photo of a vineyard that our friend Erick took a few years ago. This time I used the same palette with the most unfortunate addition of Cadmium Red (WHY??? I've always hated this pigment!) On the last day of the workshop, Jan took on the challenge of "saving" a couple of paintings people had despaired of fixing, including this one. Even she couldn't salvage this overworked disaster! She added all sorts of colors but it was too late. RIP, vineyard.

There's a 4th painting I still have to complete-may post it at a later date.

Alum Rock Park Plein Air

2011-10-26T15:07:00.000-07:00

This is a small (10"X7") painting I did about 6 weeks ago on a SCVWS Plein Air group outing at Alum Rock Park. There are beautiful old stone grottoes and bridges left from its heyday early in the last century.

Plein Air at Ardenwood

2011-10-24T17:38:00.000-07:00

On October 13th I joined the SCVWS Thursday Plein Air painters at Ardenwood Farm in Fremont. I used one of my new Arches blocks that is made specifically for land and sea scapes. This one is 3" x 10"-quite small. Fall colors were just beginning to show on a few of the trees, but the field of pumpkins was the real show!

SCVWS Annual Show

2011-10-13T17:33:00.000-07:00

Ginger has second thoughts about her walk today...

This is the painting I submitted to the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society Annual Members' Show. It's on a full sheet of 140 lb. Arches cold press paper. I worked from a photo that my son, Andy, took. (See more of his wonderful photography at his blog, www.rusticfences.blogspot.com)

Go by the Sunnyvale Art gallery before October 30, 2011 to see all 109 paintings in the exhibit-there are some wonderful pieces in the show.

Plein Air-Church of the Five Wounds 7/14/11

2011-07-14T21:38:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's a fairly grisly name for a church; it's in a section of San José that was settled by immigrants from Portugal. Although it's a somewhat dodgy part of town and is bordered by a very busy freeway, the grounds are very well-kept. There are still a few Portuguese businesses nearby. The building's two tall bell towers can be seen from some distance and make the church a real landmark. The adjacent rectory is surrrounded by a beautiful border of rose bushes that are in full bloom. The Plein Air group from SCVWS had a good turnout-about 10 of us. It was a very breezy, cool day and the clouds came and went, changing our shadows minute by minute. I did this in a Cachet watercoolor sketchbook with a black pen and washes.

Peonies

2011-07-13T20:52:00.000-07:00

I bought a bunch of beautifully fragrant peonies at Trader Joe's and they inspired me to draw and paint them. The clear glass vase I put them in somehow got way too dark-I'll try this again and keep the vase under control-I hope! I wanted to throw some paint around and this was the perfect subject for doing so.

Plein Air at Uvas County Park on July 28th

2011-07-06T14:52:00.000-07:00

It was a warm day for our Hike & Sketch at Uvas County Park; eight of us showed up. Luckily we were in the shade on a trail alongside a creek, so we didn't mind the heat too much. The creek is full of boulders and is edged with rocks and cliffs covered with beautiful very thick soft green moss. There were lots of small rapids and waterfalls. The only downside was the presence of biting mosquitoes. Note to self: buy Off insect repellent wipes before the next trip to the woods!
Instead of taking along my trusty travel palette, I experimented with various media; did all of them in a 7"x10" Daler-Rowney Cachet watercolor spiral-bound book. We only had about 20 minutes at each site.

For the first piece, I used Lyra watercolor crayons and hit them with a waterbrush. The colors are sort of wimpy, and I only have the 12 piece set, which has an odd assortment of colors. This is the first time I've ever used the crayons.

On the next one, I drew with a black pen and added washes after I got home. The paper in the Cachet books is almost as smooth as hot press, so the paint really moves around.

On the third page, I did a quick drawing with a black pen, then scribbled the Lyra crayons in and used the watrer brush to blend them. This one works better than the first, as I was a little bolder with the crayon application and the ink sketch helps to pull it together.I think the waterfall effect is pretty effective here.

The last one began with a quick sketch in black pen, then I used Faber-Castell Pitt brush pens to fill it in. I only had the small "Landscape" and "Terra" sets with me, so I came home and finished it off with a few more colors.

Plein Air-Santa Clara Valley Water District Campus-May 26, 2011

2011-05-31T18:35:00.000-07:00

The SCVWS Plein Air group went out to this beautiful site last Thursday. There are ponds, all sorts of flowering shrubs, mature trees, marshes and lots of wildlife. There was a paint-worthy scene at every turn! I negative-painted the trunk and branches of this huge sycamore tree that dominated a small island in the largest of the ponds. I used a 9 x 12 block. Painting en plein air continues to be a challenge, but it is such fun to be outdoors and sharing the experience with the wonderful people who are part of this organization.

Yosemite-Plein Air Painting

2011-05-31T18:23:00.000-07:00

While David and our friends, Erick and Melinda, went on a hike to Mirror Lake, I sat by the shops and cafes at Curry Village and painted the nearby cliffs and falls. While lots of detail shows in the cliffs, the overall effect is too flat, for reasons I am still trying to figure out. I used a 10" x 12" Arches cold-pressed block.

Yosemite-Visitor Center and Upper Yosemite Falls

2011-05-31T18:14:00.000-07:00

The scanner changed the proportions on this one-neither my IT guy (husband) nor I can figure out why, despite 5 tries. I used sepia medium, fine, and extra fine point pens then added the washes.

Yosemite Nat'l Park-El Capitan

2011-05-31T17:46:00.000-07:00

This is trés experimental!!! I used an indanthrene blue brush pen for the drawing.

Yosemite Trip-Half Dome

2011-05-31T17:42:00.000-07:00

We were in Yosemite National Park with friends for 5 days earlier in the month-a good time to go before the hordes of people show up. Also the very wet and snowy winter has made the Merced River and the waterfalls just spectacular. I did quite a bit of drawing and painting-here are a few pages from my sketchbook. My Blog has gone crazy so I have to enter each picture on a separate post.
I used a 10" x 7" spiral-bound Daler-Rowney Cachet book with Faber-Castell Pitt pens and watercolor washes. This paper is much friendlier to the pens than Arches cold-pressed watercolor paper. It's about 110 lb. paper and can take a lot of water without warping.

This is Half Dome and I used a sepia fine-point pen.

PEO Directory Cover 2011

2011-05-31T16:32:00.000-07:00

For the past 5 years, I've produced a painting to use on the cover of my PEO chapter's annual directory. The symbols of the organization (which is a philanthropic group that supports women's education and provides scholarships) are stars and white marguerites. It's tough to come up a new take on a daisy! Here's what I did this year. I used Faber-Castell Pitt pens and watercolor on a 9 x 12 Arches cold-pressed block

Plein Air at Hayes Mansion

2011-05-14T22:02:00.000-07:00

Two days ago I went to the Hayes Mansion here in San Jose and joined our wonderful group of plein air regulars in painting this charming old house. It's beautifully restored now, and used as a meeting center and restaurant. The weather was perfect, but the shadows were problematic for all of us. Wish I had sat off to the side a bit, as this head-on view was not as interesting as it might have been. The photo is a bit tilted-my painting is straighter than this!

. I used a 12" x 16" Arches rough block.

Plein Air-Nola's Iris Farm

2011-05-11T20:44:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday I went to the SCVWS Plein Air group's paint site-Nola's Iris Farm-in the east foothills. The panoramic view of the Santa Clara Valley (aka Silicon Valley) was stunning, and the irises were in full bloom. I did 2 paintings, one of a single iris bloom, and one a hillside view. The bud on the single iris worked out beautifully. The leaves...not so much. Both are on a 9x12 Arches block. I also tried out a new Tombo water soluble pen with a water brush. I only bought 1 pen-black-and the black iris I drew with it is a little bit creepy looking! Who wants to see a black flower???!!? I'm not posting that one!

Murano Canalside Market

2011-04-22T21:31:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why I'm posting this-I am so not pleased with the way it turned out. It's from a photo I took of a produce market on a boat parked canalside on the island of Murano in the Venetian lagoon. I managed to take a cheerful sunlit scene and turn it into a murky mess! It's on a half sheet-15" x 22". I began the painting back in January, and it quickly became a mess, so I put it aside until last week, when I decided to bring it to some level of completion so I can move on.

Plein Air April 21, 2011

2011-04-21T18:56:00.000-07:00

Today we met at SCVWS President Karen Wong's house in Los Altos. She has a lovely garden, as do several of her neighbors, and we all enjoyed painting there. Everyone LOVED her 10 week old puppy, Bones!

Once again I used an Arches 140 lb. block, 9" X 12" and drew with sepia pens before I applied my washes. I went back afterward and added lots more pen. Next time I'm going to try to zero in on a smaller area so I can get more detail. The arbor is not skewed so wildly in reality-I just had drawing issues.
Afterward I went to lunch with Kaaren and her mother, Kay Marinaro. Kay isn't a plein air girl, but we're trying to get her to give it a try! We had a great visit.

Plein Air on April 14th

2011-04-20T16:47:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday the SCVWS Plein Air group painted in Elaine Revell's garden. She is moving and downsizing, so she had a garage sale featuring loads of art supplies, books, videos, paper and more, the proceeds of which she is generously donating to the Watercolor Society. It was a nice sunny day and we had a great turnout.
I used a 9" x 12" Arches block and sepia Faber Castell pens with washes. I finally added the last few washes today. I'm happy with the way I was able to get so many natural-looking greens.

Heirloom Tomatoes from Dick Cole Workshop

2011-03-29T13:41:00.001-07:00

I took a workshop the week of March 14th with Dick Cole. It wasn't the best workshop I've ever attended, but I got some work done that I was happy with and met a couple of new people. The members of SCVWS (Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society) are the nicest people! This painting is 9" x 13" and based upon a photo I took of some of the heirloom tomatoes we grew last summer in our plot at the community garden to which we belong. The 2 little odd things in the lower left of the basket are tomatillos in their crinkly brown husks. I'm thinking about doing it again on a full sheet.

John Salminen Workshop-Bruges Canal

2011-03-05T18:07:00.000-08:00

Last month I was fortunate enough to be a participant in a workshop with John Salminen. Not only is he an incredible painter-her's a great teacher, as well. The workshop topic was "Urban Landscapes." I painted this from a photo I took when we visited Bruges, Belgium last May. The rooftop on the dark house at left is actually covered in orange glazed tiles, but John suggested that I leave it white and shade it with the mouth atomizer technique. He was right-the bright orange would have overwhelmed the rest of the painting. Overall, the piece turned out...okay. I wish I had selected a different subject. (He did pick this one from the photos I brought-so he's culpable, too!)I will try to get back into posting mode on a more regular basis-it helps me stay focussed on painting.

Rocky Mountain National Park

2010-07-22T17:15:00.000-07:00

We just returned from a 5 day trip to Colorado, where we visited our long-time friends, Melinda and Erick. One day we drove over to Rocky Mountain National Park for a hike and a picnic. I made a quick sketch with sepia pens of varying weights and added watercolor washes when I returned home. Sylvia, one of the Paint Site leaders from SCVWS said that she finds sepia ink to be more pleasing with watercolor than black ink. I was happy with it, too-the contrast isn't so sharp. I bought a new 7"x10" travel sketchbook that has 140 pound paper. While it isn't hot press, it's smoother than the Arches cold press books I had been using and I am MUCH happier with the way the pen goes down on the paper.
I wish there had been more time to draw-it's difficult to fit in when traveling with non-artists!

Travel Journal-the Rialto Market in Venice

2010-07-10T22:35:00.000-07:00

I love seeing the outdoor markets. cheese shops, bakeries and even "super mercatos" in Italy. Wandering around the iconic Rialto market in Venice is always a treat. This is my favorite page from the watercolor journal I made of our most recent trip. I have been unhappy with the rough texture of the Arches cold-pressed paper in the books I've been using; medium and fine-tipped pens just don't work on the paper. I bought a new book yesterday that has paper that is heavy enough to stand up to watercolor, but with a much smoother surface, and I will try it out next week on our trip to Colorado. I also bought sepia-toned pens and look forward to trying out my new equipment! I'm not taking any paints along this time-will concentrate on the drawing and add washes, maybe, after I return home. Now that the SCVWS reception and Friday's Art and Chocolate event are over, I can concentrate on painting again. I enjoy being on the board and serving as Hospitality Chairman, but it does take my attention away from making art.

Watercolor journal #2 - Bruges, Belgium

2010-07-06T17:06:00.000-07:00

As soon as David saw the film, "In Bruges" with Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes, and Brendan Gleason, he wanted to visit the town. Bruges is touted as the most beautiful medieval town in Europe, and it absolutely is as picturesque as it appears in the film, but from 10 a.m. until about 4:30 p.m. it is overrun with tour groups! Between the cruise ships at nearby Calais and the bus tours out of Brussels, the streets are thronged with people. And, according to locals, we didn't see it at its worst-in summer one can barely move, apparently. In the early morning and the evening, however, it is quiet, peaceful and utterly charming.
We had dinner one night at a tiny restaurant where all of the food is cooked in a small open fireplace. I had perfectly done medium rare lambchops, and marvelled at how the "chef" managed to keep track of the various meats and potatoes cooking on an open fire for 25 people, plus serve wine and deliver checks! No picture of it, alas-I was too mezmerized to get the camera out!

Watercolor Journal #1 Brussels

2010-07-06T16:35:00.000-07:00

On our trip to Belgium, the Netherlands, and Venice in May, I kept a watercolor journal again. As usual, I failed to plan ahead-I just jumped in and started drawing. Here are the first few pages. Let's see how the resolution works form scanning them....

Torcello-Santa Fosca

2010-06-01T17:27:00.000-07:00

Torcello is the island where the first settlement in the Venetian lagoon was made. While only about 20 people actually live there now, at one time there were 20,000 or more inhabitants on this small island. Many local people go out to Torcello on the waterbus-vaporetto-for the day for picnicking or lunch at one of the restaurants. While there's a 6th century church next to this small Byzantine-style church of Santa Fosca(built in the 11th century) it wasn't as interesting visually to me. It was a partly-cloudy but pleasant day, but I was seated my tiny folding stool, so comfort was elusive. I only got the rooftops-I didn't plan my composition in advance, just sat down and got to work. I used a 9"x 12" Arches block.

PleinAir in Brussels

2010-06-01T17:18:00.000-07:00

This is the view of the cathedral in Brussels from the garden terrace of the B&B where we stayed. It was a wonderful location, just a block from the cathedral in one direction and the Grand Place in the other. It was cloudy and chilly, maybe 50 degrees, so I made quick work of the painting, and only did one of the two towers!

Letter Z

2010-05-01T16:38:00.001-07:00

I was thinking about illuminated manuscripts and wanted to do a lighter take on a letter. In this case,"Z" doesn't stand for anything-it's just an ornamented letter. My drawing was all done freehand out of my head-no reference photos, so some of the critters are a bit distorted. I like the pale aqua bubbles and the sinuous kelp. I experimented by using gum arabic with the paints in place of water. It gave the painting a slightly glossy finish. I have some ideas to do some other letters-but they'll have to wait until I return from Europe!

Irish Doors

2010-04-22T15:25:00.000-07:00

I'm nearing the end of the alphabet for my painting class assignments. These 2 are "Killarney Barn Door" (to replace a disastrous leaf print piece the instructor wanted us to try) and "Ulster Manor House Door." Both are small-7" x 10". They were good practice, and I'm happy with the way they turned out. I only have 5 paintings to go and 10 days to get them completed-all will likely be small, as I don't have enough time to tackle anything major.

Petunias-Again

2010-04-21T14:11:00.000-07:00

I did a painting these petunias last week, intending them to look loose and carefree. They didn't, of course, so I tried again. While this rendition is less structured than the first, it still isn't where I had envisioned it going. I'll try it again next month-I'm thinking about how to get started so I don't paint myself in to the same proverbial corner from the get-go. Meanwhile, I'm finishing up the work for my class at Mission and preparing for our May trip-volcano permitting! I have a new art backpack and ordered a new block and a couple of tubes of paint in colors I thought would be helpful in capturing the Dutch landscape. Someone at a SCVWS paint site said that Davy's gray is really good for overcast skies-which we're likely to see in Belgium and the Netherlands. I'm studying Van Ruysdael's and Cuyp's landscapes to get prepared. This painting is 10" x 14".

Coyote Bait & Tackle 2

2010-04-16T21:36:00.000-07:00

I was so disappointed with the tortured brushwork on my first painting of this quirky building that I decided to give it another try. This one is lighter, but I think it worked out much better. I made much use of a new color that Laurie Barna, a fellow SCVWS member, recommended to me-Indanthrene Blue. It can go from a deep, dark blue to the palest tint. The picture here is somewhat lighter than the actual painting-I scanned it-will try a photo later to see if I can get a better rendition. Size is 10" x 14"

N- "Not a Place I Would Hang Out!"

2010-04-09T21:23:00.000-07:00

David and I went out for a drive one day and we passed the Coyote Bait Shop. It looks as though parts of the building were added at random. There are elements of this painting that worked out really well-the trees and the bait machine at the far right-but I seriously overworked the blue of the building and used more mask than I would have liked, so I've begun doing this one again.

Q is for Quilt

2010-04-01T18:45:00.000-07:00

I belong to a philanthropic women's organization, PEO, which promotes and funds womens education. Our chapter prints an annual yearbook that is a roster, meeting schedule and reference for members. For the 4th year in a row, I was asked to paint a picture for the cover. The caveat is that it needs to include all or some of the following-daisies, stars, and the colors green, white and gold. The little red rectangles are my way of being a rebel! While it isn't fine art, I think the Sisters in our chapter will be happy with this year's cover.

P is for "Plein Air"

2010-04-01T18:28:00.000-07:00

Today I went to Mission Santa Clara on the campus of SC University with the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society's weekly plein air group. There were only 4 of us, likely due to the cold morning-it only went up to the upper 50s-maybe 60 by noon. Quite frigid by Bay Area standards! I ordered a couple of sets of Pitt Pens from Jerry's and they arrived last night. I bought the Terra, Landscape, and Grayscale sets. I took them out today for the first time and feel pretty good about my initial effort. I used no pencil at all-just began to draw in a small 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" sketchbook. There's no purple or violet in the sets I got, so the wisteria (which is just beautiful) is blue, instead! Afterward, I did a watercolor of the same scene. i kept it loose, but probably could have spent another half hour or so on it-I just got too cold! It's 12" x 16"

M-"My son Andy takes beautiful nature photos!"

2010-04-01T18:10:00.000-07:00

Andy enjoys hiking and biking and taking pictures. He posts many of his pictures on his blog www.rusticfences.blogspot.com Check them out-I think you'll be impressed!
I interpreted one of his photographs in watercolor. As so often happens, I overworked parts of it, but overall, I'm happy with the results. I think I'll try it again-maybe much larger, and use a large brush, which might help me to keep it fresh. After brushing on a light wash of raw sienna in the area of the fence posts, I masked them, then went back in and painted them at the end. The size is 10" x 14".

L "Lavender Hill Farm"

2010-03-21T17:35:00.001-07:00

Mike and Carol, friends of my sister, Ann, have a lavender farm near Lake Stevens, Washington. They have a gift shop that Ann helps out in during the season and they let her sell her crafts there in return. They host an annual Lavender Festival in the summer as well as a Harvest Festival in the fall, and a Holiday Festival in late November. Ann took this photo during the Lavender Festival 2 years ago. They invite lots of vendors, arrange entertainment, and all of their friends pitch in to direct traffic and run the event. Ann often takes pictures for them; one appeared in a local paper-unattributed, alas. I edited out the small tents and canopies from this shot and changed the orientation of her photo. I hope they like it!

H is for "Hydrangeas"

2010-03-18T20:50:00.000-07:00

I can actually say that this is a painting I am very happy with. I drew the vase and flowers freehand from my imagination and painted it with no photo reference. I was able to be freer without a picture to follow-maybe this is the secret to the elusive search for "looseness!" I started with a variegated wash of permanent rose, aureolin, burnt umber, and French ultramarine, laying the colors in on wet paper about where I wanted things to be. I didn't use any tube greens, and painted the leaves first, carefully painting around the veins. I added cerulean and smalt to the palette to complete the flowers. "Smalt" is an old, discontinued Winsor & Newton pigment that has a bit more red in it than ultramarine. They reissued it in a limited edition for a big anniversary a couple of years ago, and I was fortunate enough to be given a tube by their local rep. It's a beautiful shade. Along with a touch of burnt sienna, my palette was comprised of 7 colors. I kept the background very simple and suggested some shadows. I did scrub out a few highlights on the vase with a Mr.Clean Magic Eraser. This is a half sheet-15" x 22".

Plein Air Thursday

2010-03-12T11:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the SCVWS plein air group went to Morgan Hill, a town just south of San Jose. It's a little country town metamorphosing into a sprawling suburb, struggling to hold on to its history and maintain the character of the small "downtown." There's a move to save the Granada, an arte moderne style theater. Local arts groups have been invited to come and paint it. The paintings will be offered for sale at a party with food and music in 2 weeks. I don't plan to enter my painting, as it has several egregious flaws. Sadly, the original stucco of the facade has been covered with an ersatz brick veneer, but the curving aluminum band around the top is still there, as well as several other architectural features that give it more personality than all of the mall multiplexes that have replaced places like the Granada.

G is for Glass

2010-03-03T23:29:00.000-08:00

Each time we're fortunate enough to return to Venice, we go to L'Isola, the Carlo Moretti showroom we discovered on our first visit to the city. The glass is displayed in an elegant, comtemporary gallery-like setting. We can only buy a couple of pieces each time, and we're so excited when they arrive a few days after we return home. They're beautiful, whimsical, and surprisingly tactile.
I took photos of the 3 Champagne flutes here against a sheet of white paper, sitting on the mantel. There were no cast shadows, and I didn't try to add any; it was enough of a challenge to try to capture the transparency of the glass.
The only thing better than looking at the glasses and remembering time spent in my favorite city on earth is drinking Champagne from them! The painting is a half sheet-15" x 22".

"F" Feather-Ode to Calvin

2010-02-25T12:09:00.000-08:00

When my parakeet, Calvin, sheds his feathers, I collect and save them; they're just too beautiful to discard. By now I have enough to make a new bird! Calvin is about 9 years old and such a cheerful little guy whose chirps and songs cheer up dreary winter days. This painting is layer upon layer of masks and washes. I used cerulean, French ultramarine, indigo, phthalo blue, sap green, and permanent rose. The green and rose don't show much after at least 8 washes and 6 or 7 layers of masking and 2 final very dark washes of ultramarine and indigo. Size is 10"x14".

"E" is for Eggs

2010-02-24T14:29:00.001-08:00

I jost love the soft colors of birds' eggs. I even always buy brown eggs at the market and admire the subtle differences in their shell colors. This is a small painting (7"x10") that's inspired by the photos in a book, "Birds of America," published in 1936. The book belonged to David's Aunt Julia, and was passed on to us by his mother, Bernette.

"D" Drips & Dribbles: Morris Louis Meets Jackson Pollock

2010-02-24T14:17:00.001-08:00

I have always enjoyed the work of the Abstract Expressionists-Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko, Morris Louis, who is one of my favorites, and the best known of them all-Jackson Pollock. I thought I would do a quick take-off on the last 2 and make rapid progress on my alphabetical assignment. Little did I know how much time it would take to work so recklessly! This is a full sheet-22" x 30".

Plein air last Thursday

2010-02-20T23:28:00.000-08:00

I went out to Overfelt Gardens in East San Jose with the SCVWS on Thursday. There were 8 of us this time around. There's a lovely Chinese Cultural Garden with a huge gate, a pagoda and several smaller gazebos in the area. The trees haven't begun to leaf out yet, but the purple leaf plums are in bloom. I forgot my pencils in the car and didn't want to walk back and get them so I just started putting paint on the paper. It isn't my best effort, but it's always fun to get out with the group.

"C" is for Crab

2010-02-20T17:17:00.001-08:00

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was in Seattle last month and went to the Daniel Smith store. I bought some of their PrimaTek pigments and haven't really used them much up to now. I decided to enlarge my crab from last month and try him with those pigments. I used 4 colors: Sodalite, Blue Azurite, Green Apatite, and Sugilite. I took geology in college, and I must say that I have never heard of the last 2 minerals! The paints have very unusual properties and were challenging to even get down on the paper, as they fall out of solution and separate from the binder very quickly. Some of them are quite gummy. The sugilite is a light violet and has a beautiful iridescence. The painting is 14" X 17".
I was not trying to produce an acurate shadow pattern; my aim was more toward pulling the composition together. I also wanted to use negative painting-I managed some, but not as much as I originally planned.

"B" is for "Barn"

2010-02-20T17:08:00.000-08:00

When we visited Red Lodge, Montana last summer, My mother's first cousin, Ed Kahila, took us for a drive out to see the original homestead built by his and Mother's grandfather, a Finnish immigrant. His last name was Matson. The house is gone, but the barn is still in good shape. The smaller building is newer. The cemetery nearby is full of tombstones with Finn names-there are lots of As Ks, Ls and Vs. Some of the names sound Hawaiian!

"A" is for "Alberobello"

2010-02-20T16:09:00.000-08:00

Once again I'm taking a painting class at Mission College. This semester the instructor, Mark Engel, came up with a new scheme for the class: we are to create 26 paintings-one for each letter of the alphabet. For my first, I used a reference photo I took when we were in Italy 2 1/2 years ago. We visited the town of Alberobello in the region of Puglia. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site, due to the hundreds of trulli-little dome-shaped stone and stucco houses with stacked stone roofs. We even stayed in a trullo for 2 nights! The living room was large with a wonderful soaring ceiling of exposed stone but the bedrooms and bathrooms were teensy and oddly shaped. There's even a church in the town made up of several trulli.

Thursday Plein Air

2010-01-31T16:13:00.001-08:00

Last Thursday was the first sunny day in the past week and a half, and the Plein Air group from the SCVWS went to Guadalupe Oak Grove Park in Almaden Valley. It's a beautiful park and well-used; we saw hikers, runners, dog walkers and a workout group. Someone asked if we were birdwatchers-I'm not sure that's a compliment! There's a wonderful rocky cliff face, but I didn't see it soon enough and rather ambitiously decided to paint the view across the valley. The deciduous trees have a warm glow about them right now, as their buds are beginning to swell. I was surprised by how many columns of Italian cypresses there were in the landscape.

The rest of the Dale Laitinen workshop

2010-01-25T17:30:00.000-08:00

The workshop lasted 3 days and the price was unbelievably low! Of course the 55 mile drive to Salinas 3 days in a row was tiresome, and I used most of a tank of gas, so that kind of balances out the cost, I guess.

The palette I used is his suggested one: Fr. ultramarine, cobalt, quin gold, quin red, burnt sienna, new gamboge, phthalo green, yellow ochre, and alizarin. He uses the yellow ochre primarily in very thin, uneven washes for underpainting. I haven't used phthalo green much before-it does mix well for greens, but needs dulling down. Also-all 3 pieces are half sheets. (15" x 22")

On day 2 we painted waterfalls and rocks. I used a picture I had taken myself several years ago in the Trinity Lake area, and that I have painted twice before. The rocks turned out interesting-the water not so much.

Day3 we all painted Dale's barn photo. I overworked this poor barn and the eucalyptus trees behind it so abysmally that it's shameful. I enjoyed seeing his demos and will try to put some of his techniques into practice.

Dale Laitinen Workshop

2010-01-25T17:18:00.000-08:00

I've spent the past 3 days at a workshop in Salinas. Dale Laitinen has an almost geometric approach to his subjects. He says that he paints shapes-triangles, rectangles and circles, not things. I need to put in lots of practice time, as I've neglected my work since Thanksgiving, but I will try to apply his underpainting technique and work on making each brushstroke count. The paintings I'm attaching here are all overworked to greater or lesser extents.
The first day we painted mountains-I used one of his photos. The mountains were very dark in the photo, covered with sagebrush.

The Jetty-Everett, Washington

2010-01-23T17:01:00.001-08:00

This day was warmer and dry so I sat on a bench at the waterfront with sister Ann. The earthen jetty has a trail on it and is a wildlife refuge. The houses at right are on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. At one point, there was a great blue heron perched on nearly every piling. Then a bald eagle flew over and they all scattered. The eagle eats fish, not birds, but I guess they weren't taking any chances!

Rainbow Bridge, La Conner

2010-01-22T17:43:00.000-08:00

Same day as last painting-we drove back across the Rainbow Bridge and found a place to park where we could see the whole bridge (still sitting in the truck, as the rain had stopped, but it was getting really cold as the sun went down.) This small painting (7"x9") was done wet-in-wet, then I went back in with black ink. The vibrant dark red orange of the bridge contrasts so beautifully with the very dark green evergreens- someone had a real eye for color when they selected the color for the bridge! I used brown madder-it was the perfect color right out of the tube. The sun was setting so quickly that I had to work quickly. Painting en plein air in that climate is very different than in San Jose. Here, the paper dries so quickly sometimes that it's difficult to get colors to mix. On the wet Washington coast, it took forever for the paper to dry. My sister, not a watercolorist, was becoming alarmed as the paint kept running, but I'm happy with the way everything blended.

La Conner, Washington

2010-01-22T17:36:00.000-08:00

La Conner used to be a little fishing village, but its cute quotient has been upped considerably lately as it has become a tourist mecca of galleries and antique and gift shops. My sister and I drove across the Rainbow Bridge to look back at the waterfront. The sky was mostly gray with a few blue patches coming through to the south. Can you still call it plein air if you're sitting inside a pickup truck in the rain?

Back Home from Washington!

2010-01-22T17:12:00.000-08:00

We just returned from a week-long trip to visit family in Washington. My sister Ann and I, along with her friend Carol drove to Seattle to visit the Seattle Art Museum. We saw an exhibit on Michelangelo's Judgement Day fresco-the painting on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. There were a few of his small drawings among the pieces displayed; it was very interesting and informative. Also saw a Calder show-fun. We had a terrific lunch at the Dahlia Lounge, visited a couple of fabric stores (for them) and made a pilgrimage to the Daniel Smith store (for me.) In addition to his own line of watercolors, the shop sells many other lines and has pretty much anything an artist working in any medium could want. I bought 14 tubes of his Prima-Tek pigments. They're ground from pure minerals and have remarkable characteristics. Several are quite iridescent, some sparkle, and some granulate so actively that you almost see the pigment drop out before your eyes! I painted samples of 12 of them-don't know how well they'll show. Click on the picture so you can see an enlarged view and get a better sense of how these pigments behave. There were sets that combined several tubes for a price break and my sister had a 20% off coupon!

Feeling Crabby....

2010-01-11T15:24:00.001-08:00

I bought a block of watercolor paper made in Amalfi when I was there 2 years ago. When I pulled it out to use for the first time a few weeks ago, disaster struck. After painting the crab, I masked it out with white "Easy Mask" tape so I could work on the background. When I pulled off the tape, a layer of paper came along with it, leaving white splotches on my crab. After whining about it for 2 weeks, I went in with pen and ink. Not a prize winner, but I saved it from the recycle bin!
The image is from a photo I took when I visited my cousin Candy, near Baltimore. She and her husband, Wayne took me out for an authentic Maryland crab feast. After 31 years in California, we still miss those spicy blue crabs thrown out on a brown paper-covered table!

Tulips

2009-12-12T17:34:00.000-08:00

I wasn't happy with the way the irises turned out, so I worked on another painting to fit the 7 x 14 frame. The actual size of this image is 5" x 13". I drew some tulips freehand and started putting brush to paper. I started with a variegated wash of aureolin, French ultramarine and alizarin over the whole page. My plan was to do lots of negative painting to describe the flowers and push them forward, but I went astray and just painted them in. I did add a few negative leaves at the end. Maybe I'll try this again and be looser and follow my original plan. But this version is going into the frame and off in the mail, as I have waited far too long now and must get our packages to the post office Monday morning or risk their not arriving for Christmas!

Iris

2009-12-08T17:17:00.000-08:00

Here's another small painting-I made the mistake of buying several rather small frames on sale, thinking I'd make a few Christmas presents. It's much easier to buy a frame to fit a painting than it is to paint a picture to fit a frame! This particular iris is similar to Edith Wolford-one of my favorites. I couldn't find a photo of Edith, so I used one of a variety with the same colors.

The painting is 5" X 13".

Trout in rocky stream

2009-12-08T13:29:00.000-08:00

This is a small (8" X 8") painting I did a few days ago for my brother Al's Christmas present. I painted a much larger version about a year and a half ago with a koi in place of the trout. Like the earlier version, this painting has so many midvalues that it doesn't translate very well on the scanner.

Persimmons

2009-11-27T23:45:00.001-08:00

It seems as though everyone is painting persimmons lately. I picked a dozen or so at our Laguna Seca Community Garden last week and set them up on the table to paint. Since attending the Betsy Dillard Stroud demo last month, I've been carving away on a linoleum block, planning to incorpaorate some stamping into a painting or two. My design is based upon a Celtic pattern, and I started out low -key with a subtle tone-on-tone print in the background. I used thick watercolor paint-acrylic might have made a stronger print. I learned a great deal about how to approach the printing process next time-what to cover and when to apply the print, etc. The piece is quite small-9" X 5". We ate the persimmons after lunch the other day and they were good-crunchy and not too sweet. Except for their current popularity among artists, they are a much underappreciated fruit.

More from Asilomar

2009-10-13T17:24:00.000-07:00

After a long day at the mission in Carmel, Kaaren and I came back to Asilomar and walked over to the beach to paint the rocks and the ocean. It was much rougher on Saturday than it had been on Friday, with near gale force winds. The light was quite bright on the water and changed dramatically between 3:30 when I began and 4:30 when I was finishing up; the sea went from greenish blue to a slate grey. I had a little bit of excitement when a gull hopped over and stole my paper towel!

Pen & ink at the Carmel Mission

2009-10-13T13:47:00.001-07:00

I did a very quick small pen and ink sketch in the central courtyard at the mission. Later, I did a larger ink drawing of the facade. It was my intention to add watercolor to both of them all along, which I got around to doing over the past couple of days. I particularly like the way the Italian cypress to the left of the mission front door turned out; perylene green-a deep green with a fair amount of black in it-was a good color choice for the base color here. It also helped me get some good foliage shadow colors. While at the mission, we observed that the dome is uneven, the window over the front door is off-kilter, and there are other little idiosyncrasies in the design!

More at the Asilomar Paint Out

2009-10-10T18:40:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, on the second day of the Paint Out, most of us went over to the Carmel mission. I sat in the (breezy) courtyard and painted a side view of the mission church. My painting is uncharacteristically pastel!

Plenty of Plein Air at Asilomar!

2009-10-06T18:04:00.000-07:00

I attended the annual Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society Paint Out at Asilomar this past weekend. Three days devoted to plein air painting with no other distractions or responsibilities was such a treat! For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, Asilomar began in the early 1900s as an oceanside retreat on the beautiful Monterey Peninsula, and was owned by the YWCA. It's currently part of the California state park system. The old wood and stone main lodge, dining hall, and several other buildings were designed by noted architect, Julia Morgan. She designed Hearst Castle, Wyntoon, and scores of other houses, schools, and public buildings. All meals are included, making it a carefree weekend. I shared a room (very simple with no tv, radio or phones)with Kaaren-an ideal roommate! We had early nights, as we were warned not to leave our rooms after dark due to the mountain lion that is currently making the area his home. It would have been nice to take a walk on the boardwalk across the dunes over to the beach, as the moon was full, but we didn't want to take a chance on ending up as cat food.
Friday was a beautiful day. We drove directly to Point Lobos and set up by the ocean, where I did my first painting to the sound of sea birds and barking sea lions-rocks and a pine-covered promontory surrounding a little inlet. The brownish spots in the water are kelp. I worked on blocks the entire time-easier than carrying stretched paper around.
After about 2 1/2 hours, we walked up to an overlook whose name I can't recall and I did a quick little painting, looking down and across a small beach area. The ice plant, a succulent that is prevalent in the area, on top of the cliffs begins turning red in cooler weather. I was trying to be a little looser than normal...really did not succeed with the dense green black cypress on the opposite cliff. After 3 days, I have a much better idea of how to approach them.
While at this site, we met several people-a nursing mother who was famished and asked if we had any trail mix or something she could have, as she was feeling faint, (I had some crackers), and an older Russian man, Igor, who told us in halting English that he's the head of the Russian "Aquarell Federation!" He was very interested in our materials, and was familiar with Winsor & Newton. It was a great start to the Paint Out!
We joined our fellow painters for dinner and a casual critique afterward.

Plein Air in Los Gatos

2009-09-29T16:49:00.000-07:00

I went to the SCVWS plein air paint site in Los Gatos last Thursday; only about a half dozen of us showed up, but it was a nice day and there's always plenty to paint there. I began on the corner of Santa Cruz and University Avenues, looking across the street at the La Canada Building-the bottom picture. I went in and added some black pen, but the point was too bold, I think.
Next, I walked over in front of Old Town and did a quick study of the church next door-the top picture. I had pretty good luck with the layered foliage, which is one of my big challenges, and one I force myself to deal with frequently. Both paintings were completed in a bit less than 3 hours total.

Red Garage-Jackson, Wyoming

2009-09-09T16:49:00.000-07:00

This little red garage in Jackson was so appealing, with its small, neat proportions and peeling red paint. When I came back with the camera to photograph it, there was a car in front-I could have just edited it out for the painting I planned to do, but I decided to walk into town and try again on my way back to the Buckrail Lodge. When I passed by again, a man was getting into the car-he went back in the nearby house and came out to the car again. Meanwhile I was skulking around down the street, looking rather suspicious, I imagine, as he was watching me and seemed reluctant to drive away. I finally began walking away, and he drove off. I hurried back and got several good shots. There were actually 3 more overhead wires, but I omitted them.
I used drybrush, and wet-in-wet to capture the wood, and kept it pretty loose-for me!In Mike Bailey's workshop he talks about "exalting the mundane." This homely little garage gave me that opportunity.

Black Hills, South Dakota

2009-09-06T21:03:00.000-07:00

This is the final plein air painting I did on our trip. We stayed at a B&B out in the woods-2 miles down an unpaved road! It's called the "Coyote Blues Village, " and is owned and run by a Swiss couple, which means the breakfasts are huge. I painted the view from our terrace. It was pine trees and fields in all directions. I saw a deer while I was sitting here, but he moved a little too quickly for me to paint!

Lake Yellowstone-Morning

2009-09-04T23:25:00.001-07:00

While we were staying at the cabins adjacent to the Lake Yellowstone Hotel, I managed a long morning of painting. Before the sun got too intense, I sat on a bench overlooking the lake and made one of my better attempts at portraying water.
Then, as the sun rose higher and the day heated up considerably, I moved under the shade of some nearby pine trees, turned my back on the lake, and painted the charming old yellow (very yellow!) hotel itself. The rock I found to sit on was less than comfortable, so I worked much more quickly that usual. Everything went well until a chipmunk ran between my feet and the rock-a distance of maybe 10", and gave me quite a start!

Buck Rail Lodge-Jackson Hole WY

2009-09-01T18:02:00.000-07:00

We stayed at a log cabin motel in Jackson Hole for 3 days. Anywhere else the design would be kitschy, but the style fits in perfectly there in the mountains. I sat at a picnic table on the lawn and produced this watercolor/pen & ink rendition of the place. There's a ski run where groups of trees separate large areas of grass on the hill behind the place.
I omitted the group of fellow residents who sat on chairs drinking beer all afternoon outside the room at the right!

Back From Vaca

2009-09-01T11:26:00.001-07:00

We just returned from a 2 week road trip to Jackson Hole, the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Little big Horn, Mt. Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Monument and much, much more. I was able to fit in a little plein air work-though not nearly as much as I would have liked. We took loads of photos and I hope to find some inspiration in a few of them for future paintings. My favorite part of the trip was Yellowstone's enormous variety of geothermal features-every one so different and curiously beautiful in its own way. My least favorite thing was Mt. Rushmore....Yes it's a great engineering feat, but in my mind, it's one step up from the World's Biggest Ball of String!
This painting was the first one I did-hope you can recognize the Grand Tetons. I was sitting on a termite-infested log beside a beautiful little river on a perfect 75 degree day. This painting includes 2 of my biggest challenges-water and layers of foliage.

I'm back on track with my weekly plein air painting!

2009-08-10T20:55:00.000-07:00

After the excitement of the SCVWS "Anything Goes" reception last weekend, I'm back to fitting in a plein air session each week. This time I chose an excruciatingly hot day and sat out on my deck, looking across to the corner of the backyard. I simplified the scene somewhat-included the picnic table-omitted the chairs, expanded the shrubs, shrunk the brick terrace, etc. I'm still working on depicting layers of foliage; I tried a couple of techniques here. I'm pleased with the way the umbrella came out-patterns of light and shadow on the various segments were very tricky.

Trying out Yupo!

2009-07-27T17:23:00.001-07:00

Sheila came over today to paint with me. She's doing lots of work on Yupo and brought some for me to try. I kept it very simple, luckily, bcause the paint does wacky things on that smooth surface! I had pretty good luck with the fennel-she suggested that I use a pretty concentrated paint mixture, which was helpful advice. She left another piece for me to work with later-don't know yet what I'll do. Thanks, Sheila, for introducing me to this new material.

Return of the squash leaves

2009-07-27T00:17:00.001-07:00

My sister visited me for 8 days so I didn't get much work done, and missed my weekly plein air session altogether. Fitting in a half hour here and there, I painted the squash leaves for a second time. On this go round, I used a limited palette of only 5 colors: viridian, Winsor green (yellow shade), green gold, perylene green and brown madder. I put a great deal more detail on the leaves, though it doesn't all show up well in the photo here. The terre verte I used on the first painting behaves very oddly-almost sits on the surface of the paper, but it did give a luminous, almost iridescent character to the leaves. This one doesn't have as much of a 3 dimensional quality as the earlier piece, but I like it better-the painting just has more life to it. This is the painting I plan to enter in the SCVWS "Anything Goes" exhibit at the Norton Gallery in Palo Alto.

My weekly plein air painting

2009-07-06T22:26:00.000-07:00

I've kept up with my plan to paint en plein air once a week. On Sunday, July 5th, we drove down to Anderson Lake County Park in Morgan Hill. It was awfully dry-no green undergrowth in the woods or grasses in the open areas-just dirt. The creek was full, however. They likely let more water out of the reservoir for the holiday weekend; we saw lots of picnicing families.
I had a real problem capturing the rushing water-there were a few little rapids and lots of sparkles on the water. Without resorting to mask I just don't know how to interpret the movement and light on the creek.

2009-06-24T17:54:00.000-07:00

Today I had lunch with several of my painting friends. It was such fun to talk with people who all love art-we inspired one another to keep working!

I've kept my promise to myself to paint en plein air once a week. This is part of my effort to LOOSEN UP! A common goal, it seems. I'll post some of my efforts in the future.

Meanwhile, the squash plants in my garden are so exuberant and beautiful that I wanted to paint them. I began by taking a bunch of photos and thinking about how to approach the project. I also experimented with Winsor & Newton's Blending Medium. It helped me keep the leading edges wet so I could avoid hard lines where I didn't want them. I used a limited palette of 7 colors: Winsor green (yellow shade), terre verte (yellow shade), green gold, perylene green, turquoise, quin.magenta, and brown madder. After I thought it was finished, I put the painting up and looked at it for a day...went back and added more darks in the upper left quadrant, (which is shown at the lower left-for some reason, the picture rotated when it was loaded!?!)which really pulled it all together. I'm going to try another version soon.

2009-06-15T21:21:00.000-07:00

This is my interpretation of John Sell Cotman's watercolor, "Harlech Castle," which I painted for the June landscape project on the Following the Masters website. I scanned it, but my scanner bed is a little smaller than the painting (in fact Mr. Cotman's original is smaller, too) so a very little bit is cut off of each side of my painting. I like the puffy little sheep on the hillside-such a common sight in the British Isles. I looked it up, and learned that the castle is in Wales and was built in 1283. The challenge now is to post the painting on Following the Masters...I may need to call in help for that task!

My First Posting!

2009-06-15T20:20:00.000-07:00

I hope this goes well-my first time out of the gate! Last semester I took a watercolor class at Mission College and one of our assignments was to paint 2 portraits. I decided to try a self-portrait for the first one. My main focus in creating the painting was to emphasize the contrasting textures. Translating the stone wall to the page was a very experimental process involving the application of countless layers of spattered and smeared masking fluid, interspersed with many washes and splotches of paint, followed by much crossing of fingers and hoping for something decent. The result was far beyond my expectations-it really looks like granite!